Imperial China And Its Southern Neighbours

At a time when China-Southeast Asia relationships are undergoing profound changes, it is pleasing to have a volume which examines the interactions between China and the polities and societies to the south through time. With multiple aims of exploring the relations between northern Chinese cultures and those of the south, examining the cultural plurality of areas which are today parts of Southern China, and illuminating the relations between Sinitic and non-Sinitic societies, the volume is broad in concept and content. Within these extensive rubrics, this edited collection further interrogates the nature of Asian polities and their historiography, the constitution of Chineseness, imperial China's southern expansions, cultural hybridity, economic relations, regional systems and ethnic interactions across East Asia. The editors Victor H. Mair and Liam C. Kelley are to be congratulated for bringing together such a wealth of contributions offering nascent interpretations and broad overviews, set within the overarching historical and contemporary contexts provided through Wang Gungwu's introduction.- Dr Geoffrey Wade, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University

This book examines the emergence of imperial state in East Asia during the period ca. 400 BCE–200 CE as a network-based process, showing how the geography of early interregional contacts south of the Yangzi River informed the directions of Sinitic state expansion. Drawing from an extensive collection of sources including transmitted textual records, archaeological evidence, excavated legal manuscripts, and archival documents from Liye, this book demonstrates the breadth of human and material resources available to the empire builders of an early imperial network throughout southern East Asia – from institutions and infrastructures, to the relationships that facilitated circulation. This network is shown to have been essential to the consolidation of Sinitic imperial rule in the sub-tropical zone south of the Yangzi against formidable environmental, epidemiological, and logistical odds. This is also the first study to explore how the interplay between an imperial network and alternative frameworks of long-distance interaction in ancient East Asia shaped the political-economic trajectory of the Sinitic world and its involvement in Eurasian globalization. Contributing to debates around imperial state formation, the applicability of world-system models and the comparative study of empires, The Imperial Network in Ancient China will be of significant interest to students and scholars of East Asian studies, archaeology and history.

A richly empirical discussion of ethnic identity formation in the ancient world, presenting the peoples of China's southern frontier.

The volume is organised into three parts. The first section highlights the writings of Wang in the field of higher education. There are 24 selected articles in this collection, many of which were previously published in prominent journals. Several essays originated as keynote speeches at conferences. Spanning over a period of more than three decades from 1971 (when he was with the Australian National University) to 2008 (when he was with the East Asian Institute), Wang shares in the essays his perspectives on a broad range of topics --

The book investigates China’s relations to the outside world between ca. 100 BCE and 1800 CE. In contrast to most histories of the Silk Roads, the focus of this book clearly lies on the maritime Silk Road and on the period between Tang and high Qing, selecting aspects that have so far been neglected in research on the history of China’s relations with the outside world. The author examines, for example, issue of 'imperialism' in imperial China, the specific role of fanbing 蕃兵 (frontier tribal troops) during Song times, the interrelationship between maritime commerce, military expansion, and environmental factors during the Yuan, the question of whether or not early Ming China can be considered a (proto-)colonialist country, the role force and violence played during the Zheng He expeditions, and the significance the Asia-Pacific world possessed for late Ming and early Qing rulers.

Sinicizing Christianity investigates the ways in which Chinese people contextualized Christianity for local use. It contributes to the larger debate on sinicization and offers insight on the transition from Christianity in China to Chinese Christianity.

The third and final volume of Asia Inside Out, Itinerant People focuses on the idea of "Diasporic Asia" - the meanings of the movement of people, past and present. Which specific groups and communities linked the trading empires of the South China Coast, South Asia, and the Middle East ? Who actually traveled in the ships, and who travels in our modern jumbo jets? The authors consider the varied experiences of important mobile ethnic groups and their modern descendants. It is no accident that many of the descendants of these traveling communities can still be found around the rim of the Indian Ocean - and that many have seeped up into the land- and sea-scapes of the South China coast. The book explores the transient histories of "people on the move," through voluntary or involuntary circulation, either part of chosen paths (such as migration) or the radials of coerced journeys (such as slavery, or the dislocations wrought by conflict). The fluidity of human movement has acted to render the evolution of "Asia" more complex, both reinforcing older connections across time and space and forging new connections.--

In the final volume of Asia Inside Out, a stellar interdisciplinary team of scholars shows the ways that itinerant groups criss-crossing the continent have transformed their culture and surroundings. Going beyond time and place, which animated the first two books, this third one looks at human beings on the move.